Software developers commonly incorporate “help” functionality into their products. This help functionality provides help information to users to assist the users in interacting with the products. Numerous techniques exist for providing such help information to users. In one technique, the help functionality allows a user to input a search term pertaining to a topic of interest. For example, in the context of a text editing software application, the user may wish to determine how to format a cell of a table. The help functionality allows the user to input a search term pertaining to this text editing task. According to another technique, the help functionality may provide a demonstration pertaining to a general topic, such as by providing a simulation of possible user input actions and the resultant behavior of the software product. Typical demonstrations use a slideshow-based format, a video-based format, an animated format, and so on. The user typically reviews this demonstration prior to interacting with the software product. In any case, in traditional desktop environments, the help functionality typically displays help information in the form of one or more panel-type displays (e.g., such as a window-type display provided by Windows™ operating system produced by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.). The help functionality commonly presents these panel-type displays on top of, or adjacent to, the primary application workspace with which the user is currently interacting.
The above help functionality is not fully satisfactory in many circumstances. Generally, the software products do not satisfactorily integrate their help functionality into the primary application, requiring the user to repeatedly toggle between the help functionality and the primary application. This interaction can be distracting, as it takes the user's attention off of a task at hand to interact with the separate help functionality. Further, upon activating the help functionality, the user may have to make elaborate and burdensome actions to find a piece of help information which is relevant to the user's task at hand. Further, because of this lack of meaningful integration, the user may have difficulty in applying the knowledge imparted by the help functionality to the task at hand.
Moreover, many computer devices employ relatively small display surfaces. For example, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and various laptop computers all have smaller display surfaces compared to traditional computer workstation display devices. These smaller display surfaces often do not have the display surface “real estate” to present help information in the manner described above, that is, by providing separate help panel-type displays.
According, there is an exemplary need to provide more effective techniques for delivering help information to users.